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What remains

Dec. 10 — On Saturday, I attended a special screening of the film “Fairyland,” based on Alysia Abbott’s memoir about her late father, Atlanta activist and writer Steve Abbott. The poignant film was followed by a discussion with LGBTQ+ activists who knew Abbott or lived in Atlanta during the early days of the gay rights movement. There was also a tribute to historian and activist Dave Hayward, who passed away while organizing the screening. See my full recap of the event here. 

And now a few headlines:

A federal judge struck down Georgia’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender prisoners in state custody, but the state is appealing the decision.

 Athens Pride and Queer Collective successfully defended itself in court from a lawsuit filed by Julie Mauck, a realtor and chair of the Oconee County chapter of Moms for Liberty, who claimed she lost her job due to “cancel culture.” 

Jon Dean, the owner of Lore on Edgewood Avenue in Atlanta, says the LGBTQ+ nightclub is “barely getting by” due to a lack of patronage and neglect by the city along the nightlife corridor. 

Former Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine’s name was replaced with her deadname on a display that honors previous officeholders at the Department of Health and Human Services. Levine was the first trans person confirmed by the U.S. Senate. 

Speaking at the International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference last week, former President Joe Biden urged LGBTQ+ people to “get up and fight back” against the Trump administration. He also criticized the GOP for turning transgender rights into a “political football.”

Atlanta Pride and Out on Film have announced the five recipients for the 2025 Reel Resistance Fellowship.

Savannah Pride Center is holding a fundraiser for the organization through Jan. 1.

It’s tough outside, but it’s love in here…
Collin

Cheshire Motor Inn and the vanishing map of queer desire

Atlanta-born artist, curator, and writer Ed Woodham has crafted a beautiful elegy for the now shuttered Cheshire Motor Inn.

The motel became a hookup and gay cruising spot in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. “It was a waystation, a pickup point, a sexual playground, a refuge for men who needed an hour, a night, or a weekend to be fully themselves,” Woodham writes. 

“As the country again flirts with authoritarianism, as queer people are told – subtly or overtly – to behave, assimilate, and quiet down, the erasure of our erotic and communal landmarks is a warning.”

 Read Ed Woodham’s full essay and see more photos here.

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Violations issued to officer over interaction with trans woman at Tucker library

The DeKalb County Internal Affairs Unit has completed its investigation into an incident involving a DeKalb police officer and a trans woman at a library in Tucker. 

Sasha Swinson (pictured) said she was misgendered and verbally accosted by DeKalb Officer GA Weaver, who was on duty at the library for early voting. 

Weaver was issued violations regarding professional image, body-worn camera, off-duty employment, and duty to read/understand/comply with orders, according to a memo.

 “I’m not sure exactly what practical effects this will have, but it is certainly good news,” Swinson said.

 Read the full update here.

Original musical ‘Mamma Dearest: Here We Joan Again’ opens at Out Front

“Mamma Dearest: Here We Joan Again,” created by playwright and drag performer Blake “Tugboat” Fountain, opens Dec. 11 at Out Front Theatre.

Fountain describes the show as an ABBA-inspired holiday comedy that combines the musical “Mamma Mia!” and the 1981 cult film “Mommie Dearest” about Joan Crawford and her adopted daughter, Christina.

The musical follows Christina as she tries to uncover the identity of her birth mother, who might be Hollywood legends Bette Davis, Judy Garland, or Eartha Kitt, by inviting them all over for a “holiday meltdown of epic proportions.” 

 Find out more about the show from Fountain here.

Best Bets

 The Virginia-Highland Winterfest & Tour of Homes returns Dec. 13 with the annual Jingle Jog, parade, gift market, and more. The Tour of Homes will run both Dec. 13-14 and include 10 homes decked out for the holidays.

 The Grant Park Candlelight Tour of Homes is Saturday, Dec. 13, from 6 to 10 p.m., and Sunday, Dec. 14, from 5 to 9 p.m., and will feature 10 homes plus an artist market. 

The Atlanta Women’s Chorus will hold its “Seasons of Light” concert on Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Church at Ponce and Highland,1085 Ponce De Leon Ave NE.

Atlanta playwright Topher Payne’s “Y’allmark” draws on his experience writing holiday movies for the Hallmark Channel to create this stage play, featuring some of the same beloved tropes, plus star turns by Amber Nash and Kevin Gillese. Dec. 11-28 at 7 Stages in Little Five Points.

 Be sure to check out our IG stories @thegeorgiavoice for even more events.

The post 🧳 Cheshire Motor Inn checks out appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Dec. 8 for a new senior affordable housing apartment complex on the site of the long-delayed redevelopment of the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center site.

The revamp of the Civic Center site in Old Fourth Ward has been nearly a decade in the making, but city officials said Tuesday’s groundbreaking is just the beginning of a $1 billion mixed-use development

The $60-million six-story apartment building will include 148 affordable one-bedroom apartments for senior low-income residents. The development – a partnership between Atlanta Housing, The Michaels Organization, Sophy Capital and Republic Properties – is expected to open in 2027.

The 19-acre Civic Center property will eventually contain 1,500 mixed-income apartments, retail. offices, a hotel, and a supermarket, according to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

On Dec. 3, Mayor Andre Dickens joined city leaders and partners to mark the opening of the city’s third Rapid Housing Initiative project, The Waterworks Village, in Berkeley Park.

Transforming an underutilized Atlanta Watershed property off Northside Drive, the development features two multi-story modular buildings with approximately 100 studio units (250 square feet each) and four office spaces.

The post Civic Center, Waterworks Village next steps in city’s affordable housing initiative appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.

The Tara Theatre hosted a special screening of Andrew Durham’s award-winning film “Fairyland” on Saturday, featuring a post-show talkback with some of Atlanta’s longtime LGBTQ+ activists.

Coordinated by Touching Up Our Roots: Georgia’s LGBTQ+ Story Project and Georgia LGBTQ History Project, speakers included Abby Drue, Lorraine Fontana, Maria Helena Dolan, Gil Robison, and Gus Kaufman.

Historian Wes Nimmo moderated the event, which also included a tribute to activist and historian Dave Hayward, the co-founder of Touching Up Our Roots, who died last month.

The film tells the true story of the late Steve Abbott, a former Atlanta resident who lost his wife in a car accident in 1973 and moved with his daughter to San Francisco so he could live as an openly gay man.

The film – based on the memoir by Abbott’s daughter, Alysia – chronicles Abbott’s life as a poet, novelist, and the AIDS crisis that would engulf San Francisco in the 80s and 90s. Abbott (movingly played by Scoot McNairy) died from complications of the disease in 1992.

Kaufman and Abbott were colleagues at Atlanta’s underground newspaper, The Great Speckled Bird. Kaufman recalled that Abbott was an outspoken anti-Vietnam War activist during his time in the city.

Robison also met Abbott in Atlanta, but said they crossed paths more often once they were both living in San Francisco, and said Alysia (played by Nessa Dougherty and Emilia Jones in the film) was one of many children who led interesting lives in the counterculture.

“One of the greatest differences between then and now is that people like to talk about the gay community in those days, but you can’t really pick it out and isolate it,” Robison recalled. “These days, it’s called intersections, but back then, we just thought of it as liberation. There was so much going on, we had so many facets to their lives – people were involved in politics, arts, drugs, and sex and so on.”

Fontana recalled the formation of the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA) in 1972 to give women more of a voice in the gay rights movement. She said these women were also active in Midtown and Little Five Points and often contributed to The Great Speckled Bird.

Drue, who first came to Atlanta in the mid-1960s, said watching “Fairyland” hit her hard because “we lived through every inch” of the AIDS crisis and lost so many friends and loved ones.

Dave Hayward’s sister, Nancy Bryant, said her brother would be thrilled that so many people turned out for the screening, which he was organizing at the time of his death.

“Touching Up Our Roots was really Dave’s mission. He really wanted people to learn from history and those with lived experience to share their stories, like this panel, with younger people. Dave’s work wasn’t done, and I urge everyone to carry the torch, carry his mission forward.”

Bryant said a “celebration of life” will be held for Hayward after the holidays.

The post LGBTQ+ activists add context to ‘Fairyland’ film at special screening appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.

The school district says since enrollment is down across the system, the APS Forward 2040 plan would save the district $25 million a year, according to a report from WSB-TV.

Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco was at the standing-room-only meeting and heard passionate arguments from parents.

“It’s only going to make enrollment worse,” said Addison Clapp. “It’s only going to make education worse for our future communities.”

“You’re going to drive them into the charter schools, and you’re going to drive them to private schools. You’re going to drive them to homeschooling. Now, you’ve further divided a community. Now, you’ve closed a school. Property values have dropped. Because property values have dropped, gentrifiers will come in at an accelerated rate and purchase these homes,” Sherry Wilson predicted.

Board members told the crowd before the vote, more money means more options for kids. Critics said they’ll keep organizing despite the decision.

“That is not good for anybody on any day of the week,” said Wilson.

The schools closing include:

• Cleveland Elementary School
• Continental Colony Elementary School
• Dunbar Elementary School
• Finch Elementary School
• Frank L. Stanton Elementary School
• Jackson Primary Elementary School
• Perkerson Elementary School
• Peyton Forest Elementary School
• Scott Elementary School
• Smith Intermediate Elementary School
• Toomer Elementary School Annex
• Usher Collier Elementary School
• Douglas High School 9th Grade Building

Students at those schools will move to other nearby schools. Maynard Jackson High School, Midtown High School and King Middle School will expand capacity.

The board now has to figure out what to do with vacant properties once the buildings close and students move to other schools. For example, they can lease them to developers, turn them into affordable housing or convert them to community centers.

The board will also have to make decisions on rezoning neighborhoods. Community forums will be held early next year as the redistricting process begins.

State Representative Bryce Berry (D-Atlanta) issued a statement calling last night’s vote “disheartening.”

“APS has a tough job, and I know these school closure decisions aren’t made lightly. Still, I worry about what this means for families — especially in Southwest Atlanta — who rely on neighborhood schools for stability, connection and community,” Berry said.

“For years, some state leaders have insisted that districts ‘do more with less,’ pushing them to shrink their budgets, while demands on classrooms keep growing,” Berry said.” That pressure doesn’t fall on abstract systems; it lands on real students, real educators and real neighborhoods now facing the loss of their local schools.”

The post Atlanta Board of Education approves consolidation plan appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.

 Silence = Death

Dec. 3 — The silence from the White House this year on World AIDS Day harkened back to the Reagan era, when sweeping the pandemic under the rug was de rigueur. The cuts in funding for global AIDS prevention, care, and education – along with an attempt to erase LGBTQ+ people nationally – are an unwelcome, cruel return to 80s and early 90s politics. See more below. 

First, a few headlines:

Faith leaders from across the nation have denounced the Trump administration’s anti-transgender attacks and legislation. 

The European Court of Justice ruled that all member nations in the European Union must recognize lawful same-sex marriages that were performed in other EU countries.

Activist and journalist Mark Segal has a follow-up to his call for documentarian Ken Burns to accurately include LGBTQ+ people in his latest film, “The American Revolution.” 

There are still tickets available for tonight’s David Byrne concert at The Fox Theatre. I saw it last night, and it was raucous, political, and full of Talking Heads hits. 

But how strange the change from major to minor…
Collin

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World AIDS Day events continue as White House cancels observance

Monday’s observance of World AIDS Day took on more urgency as the Trump administration cancelled its annual Dec. 1 observance. Presidents have acknowledged World AIDS Day for more than 30 years.

HIV/AIDS activists blocked an intersection near the White House and demanded the Trump administration fully fund the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a U.S. government initiative launched in 2003 to combat the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Sen. Bernie Sanders blasted the administration on social media, stating that 150,000 people have died from AIDS-related illnesses since foreign aid cuts were made this year. 

A number of World AIDS Day events are still coming up in Atlanta, including a discussion on HIV/AIDS advocacy at the Decatur Library on Dec. 6. See the events here. 

SPOTLIGHT

The Tubman African American Museum in Macon, GA, will host the World AIDS Day exhibition “Red Reminds Me” from Dec. 4 to Jan. 4, which features art memorializing those impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

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Journey beneath the waves with Sunken Treasures, Ancient Seas at Fernbank Museum.

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➞ This exhibit is open daily, or you can swing by for after-hours during select special events! On view now until Jan. 11, 2026.

Dec. 6 ‘Fairyland’ screening at Tara Theatre to include discussion with activists 

The Tara Theatre will host a special screening of Andrew Durham’s award-winning film “Fairyland” on Dec. 6 at 3 p.m.

The event is being coordinated by Touching Up Our Roots: Georgia’s LGBTQ+ Story Project and Georgia LGBTQ History Project. There will be a post-show talkback with activist veterans about the origins of the LGBTQ+ civil and human rights movement from the 1960s to today. Speakers will include Abby Drue, Lorraine Fontana, Maria Helena Dolan, Gil Robison, and Gus Kaufman.

Historian Wes Nimmo from New South Associates will moderate the conversation. There will also be a tribute to activist and historian Dave Hayward, the co-founder of Touching Up Our Roots, who died last month.

 Find out more about the film here.

MORE MOVIES

Check out Sammie Purcell’s review of “Peter Hujar’s Day,” Ira Sachs’ new film about the famed queer photographer. 

Give a child the greatest gift this holiday season—a home filled with stability, warmth, and hope. CHRIS 180 provides trauma-informed foster and adoption services to support families every step of the way. Start your journey today. SPONSOR MESSAGE

Best Bets

The Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus will hold its “Home for the Holidays” concert on Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. and Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. at Cathedral of St. Philip, 2744 Peachtree Rd NW. 

 Atlanta Ballet’s The Nutcracker pirouettes into the Cobb Energy Centre Dec. 6 – 27 accompanied by larger-than-life sets and Tchaikovsky’s iconic score.

WRFG will hold a Silent Auction at the Little Five Points Community Center from noon to 5 p.m. on Dec. 6. This will be an opportunity to bid on experiences and events around Atlanta, while supporting your independent community radio station.

My Sister’s Room in Midtown is hosting “Christmas at the Movies: A Drag Show” on Dec. 7 at 9 p.m., featuring performances by Tucker Aye ALXNDR, Eros Étoile, Jacey Rockett, and Boudreaux.

The post 🩸 HIV/AIDS new urgency appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.